Released
Released
From College Football National Champ To Alcoholic, How I Quit | Jim Tartt
In this episode Talmage interviews his first non Latter-day Saint. Jim Tart is a colleg football national champion, former alcoholic, entrepreneur, family man, and Christian. They talk about his experience when his football career ended and how he had to go back to normal life and live as a normal guy. They discussed his addiction to alcohol and the affect it had on his family. But most importantly Jim shares his experience of how God literally took away his addiction when he gave himself to Christ. Now Jim and his family travel all around the USA selling their famous Sopchoppy Sauce and spreading the good word.
Go support Jim and check out his Sopchoppy Sauce website.
Jim’s Links:
https://www.instagram.com/jbs_sopchoppy_sauce/
Talmage's Links:
https://www.instagram.com/talmagethayne/
https://www.youtube.com/@talmagethayne21
https://www.tiktok.com/@talmagethayne
TimeStamps:
0:00 Intro: Jim's background and football career
5:27 Turning point: Praying for God to take addiction
9:49 Overcoming alcoholism through faith in Christ
15:38 The power of scripture in daily life
18:41 How sobriety improved family relationships
22:55 Uprooting family to travel and sell sauce
28:50 Homeschooling and unique educational experiences
34:30 Parallels between football and missionary routines
38:16 Challenges for athletes transitioning after college
41:59 Advice for returning missionaries: Focus on Jesus
Remember, God is good and is planning on your success. And though you've been released from your mission, you haven't been released from your ministry.
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Release the Podcast. In this episode, it's a little different. We have Jim Tart in and usually we're bringing on returned LDS missionaries to talk about their experience, but in this case, Jim, you're not even a member of the church.
Jim Tartt:No, sir.
Talmage Thayne:You're just. You're not just. You're a Christian.
Jim Tartt:That's right.
Talmage Thayne:And we met on Saturday at the Draper Days Festival and. And just started talking and your story that you were sharing just reminded me so much of a missionary's. A typical missionary story coming back.
Jim Tartt:Oh, yeah.
Talmage Thayne:And I. So I immediately was just like, hey.
Jim Tartt:I know this is similar, kind of different. I wouldn't.
Talmage Thayne:Not exactly.
Jim Tartt:I'm trying to spread cross to everybody doing what I was doing.
Talmage Thayne:That's true. Not exactly the same. But. So, yeah, I was just like, hey, I'd love to have you on the podcast. And you were kind enough to like take time out of your day to come do this.
Jim Tartt:I appreciate the offer. Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:And so I just wanted to kind of open it up to you real quick and just have you kind of tell us a little bit about your life growing up, your upbringing, what family it was like and then how you got into football.
Jim Tartt:Well, I grew up in a small town in North Florida called Sop Choppy. Population about. There's probably when I was growing up, about 450 people and we got two four way stops now. We used to not even have stop signs. Street right through the middle of town. So grew up there, went to a small high school in the town just north of SOP choppy there. I think my graduating class was about 230 people. And so just a small town. Grew up hunting and fishing and yeah, that's all I really cared about, really. And my dad, he was big into sports and loved football, so started playing at a young age, went on through middle school, high school, started getting recruited by some schools, and wound up going to the University of Florida.
Talmage Thayne:Dang.
Jim Tartt:Was. Was not too jazzed about it, really. Yeah, my senior year, I'd hurt my shoulder. I'd had shoulder surgery when I was, I think 17.
Talmage Thayne:Dang.
Jim Tartt:And I was over it. I was like, I don't really care about doing this anymore. I think it's kind of dumb.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:Hurting yourself all the time.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah. Seriously.
Jim Tartt:Anyways, my dad encouraged me to go on, get my education and do all that, and I stuck it out. Ended up winning two national championships and two SEC championships. Got to meet some really great people. I would almost think that everybody knows Tim Tebow. Yeah, I played with him. Unbelievable person. Also played with some pretty. Not unbelievable people. Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:Very believable.
Jim Tartt:Some pretty rough folks, but. Nah. Just as most people do in college and when you of about that age, you develop some habits that you don't need to develop. Mine were mostly trying to numb up some ailments and pains that I had.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And of course, that's what the world tells you is, oh, you know, it's okay, you go do this and.
Talmage Thayne:And was that primarily with alcohol?
Jim Tartt:Oh, yeah, man. Yeah. I drank so much, every chance I got, I was drinking and it just, it didn't really affect my. My school or my sport or anything. But I'm sure if I hadn't, I'd have probably been better. But, yeah, I mean, I did all right.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah. Two national championships, I'd say that's doing pretty good.
Jim Tartt:I did okay.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:It's just you, you, you're riding that high. It's kind of like we were talking about when you were talking about the missionaries coming back and, you know, when you're there, not come home. In my little town, you know, everybody want to talk to me. Everybody wants to shake your hand. Everybody wants a picture with you. And, you know, you're, You're a celebrity. Yeah. You know, you come home, there's a banner across the.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:Road with your name on it and stuff like this.
Talmage Thayne:Welcome home, tart.
Jim Tartt:That's right. Welcome home, national champ, hometown hero. This bull crap and you know, it can get to your head.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah. And was there anything good, like a good change that happened to you while doing football?
Jim Tartt:No, I met my wife.
Talmage Thayne:You met your wife?
Jim Tartt:Oh, yeah. That's where I met my wife. That's. Yes. That was the only reason. That was the only good thing that came out of all that, in my opinion.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:But met my wife. I mean, I got a buddy that lives literally 15 minutes down the road here that he wound up here in Utah for work. And I got to see him. Hadn't seen him in probably 20 years. Dang. Since I was. Since I got done playing football. And it just. I don't know, a lot of life experience that I can help guide my children. I love it a little better. I can tell them from experience instead of just saying, oh, you don't need to do that because it's wrong. I know it's wrong because I did it.
Talmage Thayne:So was there any moment in your life when let's say you're, like drinking too much? That is just kind of a wake up call. You're like, holy cow, what am I doing with my life?
Jim Tartt:I wouldn't necessarily say that. I think my wake up call was so one morning. And I'm sure I got drunk the night before because I stayed drunk. Sunshine was getting up to go because she was raised Catholic, and she had tried to find a Catholic church to go to there in our hometown, which I think there's, like, one. So. And I wasn't going with her. And, you know, they were kind of asking her about, you know, where's your husband? You've got three children, or you got two children, where's your husband? Like, how come you're by yourself? And so she quit going there. And then she got up one morning, some friends of ours, they went to a church, just it was about 45 minutes down the road from us. And she got up one morning. She's like, hey, I'm going. If you want to go, you can. If you don't, just stay here. I don't care. So me being a drunk and this is how all drunk people are. I don't care what they say. This is how they are. They're like, well, they don't think anybody knows that you're drunk.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:So it's so funny because you're like, oh, man, I can't let anybody know that. I'm like this. I was like, no, I'll go with y'. All. So I went to church with her. I'm sitting there listening to the preacher, and, man, the good Lord just got a hold through me. I was like, wow, hit me. I was like, this is where I need to be. I don't need to be doing what I'm doing. I was like, this is right. I'm with my wife, I'm with my kids. I'm listening to somebody talk about the Lord. Man, I was convicted. I was like, wow. But I didn't quit drinking immediately. So keeps rocking on there for a little bit. And, you know, I'm hanging out with people that are Christians and have been that way for a long time. And I'm talking to them, and they start telling me stories about themselves and their struggles. I'm like, okay. And there was one guy in particular that I talked to, and, you know, I'd been talking to him. I was like, you know, I'm struggling with this. I'm trying to fix it. He said, well, you know, I struggled with a lot of pain, you know, ailments and stuff that I had, and I was praying to God to help me and just really wasn't working out. He said, but just come to find out I was praying wrong. He's like, need to change the way I was praying to him. So I got to thinking about what he said, and I was sitting. I was by myself one day, and instead of, like, saying, you know, God, I just want to. I really want to stop drinking. I need to stop drinking. I prayed for him to take it from me. I didn't want it no more. I seen it happen. I didn't feel anything right then. It wasn't. You know, people talk about, oh, you know, immediately I felt something I didn't feel. And it actually. Probably about a month later, I hadn't drank anything because I was going to church. I wasn't around it. And I'd stayed away from all my buddies, all my friends that I'd been around. I'd alienated myself from them. And I was actually at a thing that I used to do for my job. It was an event we put on for disabled veterans. We'd take them hunting, and dude offered me a beer. Well, this is also something that's pretty foolish, too. You're a grown man, so you shouldn't really worry about what other people think. Like, oh, I don't want to, like, embarrass them.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And so I took it. I'm holding. I cracked it open, and I turned it up to take a drink of it, and I got it in my mouth, and I couldn't swallow it.
Talmage Thayne:Wow.
Jim Tartt:Dude. I spit it out. Like, my bad. I'm sorry. I was like, I'd ask you. I said, you did it. I said, I see it. I said, I won't ever touch it again. That was about seven years ago now. Wow. And I haven't even. I haven't even had a desire. I hadn't even thought about it. And it almost. Almost feel like that. It's to the point that it'd be like I never even had a dream. Wow. I wouldn't even know what it'd be like. But. But, yeah, that was crazy right there.
Talmage Thayne:That is amazing. So would you say, like, before that moment, you were an alcoholic?
Jim Tartt:Oh, no doubt. Bad man. Yeah. It was one of those deals where, you know, a lot of people, they have the shakes and stuff like that. I never. I never had anything like that. But every excuse I could find to drink, I wanted to.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:Oh, well, you know. Oh, y' all having a drink let me. And it. It was just. It snowballed. And I bet I drank my worst that I ever got to. I was probably drinking a bottle in A bottle to a bottle and a half every two days. Wow.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And that's not including beer. Like, it's just whiskey. Like, I drink beer. Like water. Yeah. Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:But, man, that is amazing. I. Did you ever attend any groups or.
Jim Tartt:No.
Talmage Thayne:Eight?
Jim Tartt:No, No. I just talked to God, man.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:I don't have nothing against the whole groups and everything. The aa, they've helped a lot of people get off of their addiction problems. But the one thing that they fail at is it's God as you see it. God as you see him. Or a higher being or higher power. Yeah, man. If you don't help them people, if you really want to help somebody, you tell them about Jesus.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah. You know, the true God.
Jim Tartt:Yeah. Because, yeah, us being humans, we screwed it up from the get go.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:I mean, the first two ruined the whole deal. So my thing is, how are you going to allow a human being to get an idea in their head of a higher power like you? That's. You can come up with anything, but it's a magical unicorn that comes and saves you and stops you from drinking alcohol. Come on, man.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:Get out of here.
Talmage Thayne:No, I love that. I love that take. It's a hot take, but I love it because Christ is the only.
Jim Tartt:It really is. That's my thing. Like with. With me playing football. All right, so I'm on tv, I got pictures up with me and who. Whoever. You know, these famous people that played football went on to the pros and played for years, and none of that means anything. And it. And it. It doesn't. It doesn't change your life. Yeah. All it can do is you can lose whatever humility you have and you start getting a pride about yourself and you start thinking that you're that higher power. And then you get humbled very quickly. But, yeah, it is.
Talmage Thayne:Oh, man, it is amazing because, like, to think that you could offer up that addiction that you had in Christ.
Jim Tartt:He just took it from me.
Talmage Thayne:Just takes it from you.
Jim Tartt:And what's crazy to me, too, is that me being as insignificant as I am, that he cares about me. That's wild. Yeah. I mean, the creator of the universe, he snaps his fingers and everything's done. And he cares about you. Just you and everybody else, too. And he's got the time that he'll listen to you.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:That's wild. That is.
Talmage Thayne:I remember when I was a kid, I shared this with you. I came back home and I fell into an addiction with pornography. But I struggled with it growing up, too. And When I was 16, I went to this, like, young men's camp and they were talking about Jesus and I had. I was kind of mad because I felt like I did everything right as a kid. I, like, I prayed, I said my scriptures and I did everything right. And I would always ask, why do we need Jesus? Like, I thought we were supposed to be giving the glory to God and like, not Jesus. And I as a kid, I just didn't know what all that meant.
Jim Tartt:But you can't. I don't believe. When you're a child, until you have some life experience and you have some of that struggle in your life, you can't understand, or until you've had to sacrifice some things and to give of yourself, you can't understand what Jesus is.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah, you can have like a glimpse and when you hear a kid sing like a cute song, like a song about Jesus, it's heartwarming and the spirit can be there. But I would agree with you that you can't have a deeper relationship with him without going through some of the heartaches that life just gives you through experience.
Jim Tartt:Till the world shows you what it truly is.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah, it's so true.
Jim Tartt:It's. It's hard to understand. That's like. When I was in college, I knew, I knew the way I was living and knew the things I was doing was wrong. And I would sit down, man, I try to read the Bible and it, it was, it was like a foreign language. I didn't understand anything in it.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And once I gave my life to Christ, you. You go in the Bible and you read. So you're having just a, whatever, day to, day to day problem. That's something going on. You go start reading. And when they refer to the Bible as living as the living word, man, it's like, it changes. Yeah. You can literally go in there in a script, you know, a chapter that you've read a million times. You go through there reading, and you'll read something that you've never, never, never, never seen almost. It's like it just, it opens up your mind and it just changes with everything you need. If you put your faith in it and you're trying to live by it, it's always there. It's so true to back you up. It's wild.
Talmage Thayne:There's a quote. I forgot who said it, but they said, if you want to talk to God, pray. If you want him to talk to you, read your scriptures. And I've had that happen to me so many times in my life, and I don't utilize it enough because there's oftentimes I'm like, God, like, help me out. But I'm not actually looking in the right places to get his answer. But, like, I remember going, like, back to like this time when I was 16. I was just. I was hearing all these guys talking about Jesus and I was like, why haven't I gotten an answer to this? And I'm struggling with porn at the time. And I was just, like, kind of frustrated. And for some reason during that camp, my prayer kind of changed. It went from like, I don't get it. Like, teach me to, like, help me.
Jim Tartt:Oh, yeah.
Talmage Thayne:I. I feel like I've tried everything to get rid of this. And then they started pulling young men out of the, like, little building one at a time. And they had us grab these sandbags and they'd pour sand into the bag and they're like, this is for cheating on a test. And they'd have you walk up this trail and then they pour more and they're like, this is for looking at porn. And I'm like, I'll flip. How did they know what. And they drove and we walk up the trail and it'd get heavier and heavier and heavier. And I was a little guy, and so it was really heavy for me because it was like, I don't know, £100 and you're walking up this hill. And I couldn't get up the hill all the way. So one of the bishops from the ward came up to help me. And you. I got up the hill and there is a picture, a life size picture of Jesus. Oh, that's right there. With dozens of sandbags at his feet.
Jim Tartt:That's cool, man.
Talmage Thayne:And I don't know, right then, like.
Jim Tartt:Oh, yeah.
Talmage Thayne:It just hit me and I was.
Jim Tartt:Just like, when the spirit gets a hold of you, bud. Yeah. It don't matter where you're at.
Talmage Thayne:It I. It blew me away because I'm like, it was the first time I felt clean.
Jim Tartt:Oh, yeah.
Talmage Thayne:And because shame will just make you feel like the worst person in the world.
Jim Tartt:Oh, and the. The. The devil loves that too. Yeah, that's his foothold.
Talmage Thayne:And it was just so the starkest difference I could think of. And it just blew me away. And like. And to be honest, like, I still struggle from time to time, and I've been working through it and. And life has gotten worse and it's gotten better at times, but I know that Christ is always there to reach out and forgive.
Jim Tartt:One of my favorite scriptures in the book of James, where it Talks about consider all trials, pure joy. If you look at life that way. And it's all good, man. Yeah, I love that it's a good time.
Talmage Thayne:I want.
Jim Tartt:It's hard.
Talmage Thayne:I want to ask about you and your wife's relationship with. Once you had your kind of awakening, was there a change?
Jim Tartt:Oh, most definitely. You and your family, when you're sober and you have clear thoughts, it changes a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah, it changed, man. It changed a lot. We really. There it was. There was peace and argue a whole lot. She really didn't even know how much I drank. Yeah. And so that's the thing is like, I wasn't the type person that I'd sit down with my children and be drinking with my kids. Yeah. Like, I drank when I was. This is real smart. I was drink when I was on my way home from work. I was one of those people that, you know, never hurt anybody, never got any crash or anything, but I was one of those people, you know, say on the weekend or something, some friends came over, we drank and it was kind of an acceptable thing because it wasn't just you drinking. It's a social thing. So.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah, he gets us with that one too. It's a social thing.
Jim Tartt:Yeah. But it all, man, it changed for the better. And I mean, just like every other human being, we struggle from time to time because I'm a human and she is too. And we have our own ideas of how things need to be or should be. And she's usually right and I'm usually wrong.
Talmage Thayne:Like when she told you, she's like, hey, I'm going to church. You can come if you want.
Jim Tartt:Exactly. So. And I mean, that's like awesome, though. I love that it's. And I feel like too, that people, if you. If you approach sharing God, sharing Jesus with people, the way that she did that with me and Tim Tebow was a lot like this, man. We would be places and me and whoever else were hanging out, we'd be drinking and Tim would be right there with us. But he's not drinking, he's not cussing, he's not doing anything. He's just hanging out with his friends. And so I look back at that and I'm like, man, what an example of his relationship with Christ. He can be tempted by all these things and it be all around him all the time, and he never wavers from what he's doing. Wow. And I mean, I saw it a lot. Like, I can honestly say. And we're all sinners, right? We all make mistakes. I literally never saw the kid do anything out of the way. Wow. Ever. And I mean, this is Spending a lot of time with a dude with football practice everywhere. Never saw the dude make a mistake. I'm like, that's pretty serious.
Talmage Thayne:That is.
Jim Tartt:Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:That is amazing.
Jim Tartt:It was. It really was. Which. Which I know. And he would. If he was sitting right here, he would tell you the same, that he does make mistakes. But, yeah, it's one of them deals. Like, compared to the rest of the crew he was hanging out with. Yeah, he's doing a pretty good job.
Talmage Thayne:He was a knight in shining armor.
Jim Tartt:Yep.
Talmage Thayne:There's a. I forgot which Pope said it, but he said, always, like, every day of your life, preach the gospel and when necessary, use words. And I'm like, dang, that is so cool. Because it does. People notice. Like, you notice.
Jim Tartt:It's the way that you carry yourself and the way when someone approaches you. It's just like when we're at these shows and stuff, and let's say that we're not having the best of show, we're not making a bunch of money, and the human side of you, you start thinking about, well, I'm gonna have to pay this bill. I'm gonna have to do this. Like, we're having a bad day. It would be very easy for when the next person that comes up and has something smart to say about your sauce or something like that, you could snap at them and be rude. But how would I be supporting the Bible verse that we have on the front of our table? How would I be showing that to these people if I acted that way?
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:So that's. That's kind of. It helps keep you in a good mood while you're working.
Talmage Thayne:That's true.
Jim Tartt:You gotta watch yourself.
Talmage Thayne:I actually wanted to ask about that next. Like what you said when we first met, that your two biggest regrets in life were not finding Jesus sooner.
Jim Tartt:Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:And not hitting the road sooner with your family.
Jim Tartt:Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:Can you tell me about that? Why you decided to uproot your family and come on this journey? I mean, and kind of tell them what the journey is too, because it's really interesting.
Jim Tartt:My biggest regret ever was not having a relationship with Christ. I mean, this could really be anybody that is a Christian or that you didn't find that relationship sooner. I mean, I wish you could have it as soon as you were born and you were just there and you were ready to go, but that ain't how we're made. Yeah, but we. So my uncle growing up, he Made a. It was for seafood. Made a sauce. We ate it on oysters, shrimp, stuff like that. And me and my uncle, man, we were tight. That was my best friend. And even when me and Sunshine moved back from Gainesville, he'd come to our house every night and eat dinner with us. I'd cut his hair. I mean, he was always with us. And he passed away in 2010. And when he passed away, some of his friends, they'd call me, man, I sure miss you, uncle. But I'm on that last bottle of sauce that he ever made me. But I guess I won't ever get anymore. And I was like, oh, I can make it. So I started making it for them. And it gradually kept growing and growing and growing. And now we travel all over the country and we. Number one is what me and Sunshine always say, that we get to share the gospel with people and tell them about Jesus, but we gotta sell enough sauce to put diesel in the truck to make it a little bit further. And, man, I wish. I wish when me and her got married, that would have. We would have just left and started doing it then. Yeah, it's so much fun and getting to take my kids places. So they're used to it. Cause, like, it's just something that they've pretty much, much always done. And so when you go to see the redwoods, or you go see Mount Rushmore, or you take them to Washington, D.C. and they go see all the monuments and go to Smithsonian and all that, or they go to a battlefield and get a tour battlefield. And that's their history class.
Talmage Thayne:That's so much better than a snow.
Jim Tartt:And so they're just like, yeah, we saw the redwoods. Yeah, we found a banana slug. As long as my arm is no big deal. And that's wild. It's pretty cool, though. And I hope that they appreciate it when they get older and that they. They can do the same thing for their kids if that's what they wish to do.
Talmage Thayne:So are you guys homeschooling them?
Jim Tartt:Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:Okay.
Jim Tartt:We do.
Talmage Thayne:That's sick.
Jim Tartt:Yep. So we started. So I was against homeschooling. We were. Sunshine was pregnant. We were about to have our first child. I was like, I'm not homeschooling my kid. I want my kid to go to school and be around other people and do all that. And then one of my friends that was a principal, he started telling me stories that things that were going on at the middle school that he worked at. And I got home that day and I was like, well, I was like, I don't care if they can't read till they're 25 years old. I was like, I'm not sending my kid out to that school. So. Yeah, man, we've been doing it. And it's really, it's really cool too because you've been told your whole life of what it takes for you to learn how to read or what it takes for you to learn how to do math and you have to sit down every day and you have to spend X amount of time doing this. You have to be taught a certain way to read. This is how it works, man. Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:It doesn't have to be like that.
Jim Tartt:No. Yeah, it doesn't. It's just a structured deal where someone can keep you somewhere and keep you still and while your mom and dad go to work and they can keep you there. Like, my kids have learned so much from going to different shows and stuff and working for other people and running their booths and sometimes they'll run our booth for us.
Talmage Thayne:And how old is your son?
Jim Tartt:He's 10.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah. And he was selling me the. On the flies.
Jim Tartt:He made $72 this past weekend.
Talmage Thayne:Oh my gosh.
Jim Tartt:Selling $2 flies.
Talmage Thayne:That is awesome.
Jim Tartt:He had, he sold out all the materials he had to make them. He ran out. My wife had to run him to Shields. Yeah. Buy more stuff and come back and make more.
Talmage Thayne:That is so sick, man.
Jim Tartt:He was making, he was making one for a guy when the fireworks were going off at 10 o'. Clock.
Talmage Thayne:Dang.
Jim Tartt:There at the show.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah. That is such a huge education, like sales as a 10 year old.
Jim Tartt:Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:That's amazing.
Jim Tartt:They don't even, and they don't even realize that they're just talking to people.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And they, they realize that they have to, they have to say what the people want to hear or what they need to hear. Yeah. And they start figuring it out and like there's sometimes people wanting by sauce and they'll just give Trapper money. Yeah. Because like, oh, you're doing a great job. He's like, did you see that I just got $10. Yeah, that is. I said, at least you're cute. I was like, nobody gives me any money, Trevor. I gotta earn it all. But in my oldest, she, she actually, we were in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and she started working at a booth for a guy and ended up running it for him for a couple days. She was killing it.
Talmage Thayne:Dang.
Jim Tartt:I mean, it was amazing getting to watch them do their thing. I think that's the most fun I have with doing everything is getting to let my children be exposed to these things and let them see all these different places. And I think a lot of times people, you just get pigeonholed into this one thing. Like there's a lot of people where I'm from that they've never, never left the hometown there and they don't want to. Yeah, they've never, they've never experienced what I've experienced and seen some of the stuff that I've seen. So I love that. It's pretty neat.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah. You don't have to do it the way everyone tells you you have to. My, my brother, he started doing video work when he got home from his mission just because he's like, oh, cameras are cool and jumped into it, was gonna go into an ad program at byu and then they're like, oh, we're gonna put you into a really good agency. And he's like, I don't want to work a job. I wanna, I wanna start my own video production company. And they're like, that's not what we do here. Like, if you want to do your own thing, I suggest you don't even go to school. And he's like, okay, I won't. And so he quit school.
Jim Tartt:He's saying, let him spend a bunch of money, waste his time.
Talmage Thayne:I know, Seriously.
Jim Tartt:That was nice.
Talmage Thayne:That was nice of them. So he, he started his company, killed it, was able to sell it, worked in house for a while, realized he still didn't want to do that, quit that, started another video production company. And he, he's had so many people with like master's degrees asking to be like free labor basically for him to learn how to, just to learn how to do it. Because they weren't taught that in school.
Jim Tartt:And everybody's got a gift, dude.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:He. When God creates you, He. He's created you. It's planned out. Yeah. It's a done deal. Now you can do some things to interfere with his plan and, and mess it up.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:But it's a, it's done from the get go. And you have that gift where you want it or not.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And it doesn't matter how much school and you go to or anything like that. I mean, it's there. He's going to open those doors. Like me and Sunshine talk about all the time how many things or how many times we have a door open for us. So like coming out west, we weren't going to come out here because we being humans, sat down and we started looking at all the negative stuff. Oh, it's going to cost a lot. That's a long way to go. What if something happens? I don't know.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:We probably don't need to do this. And this lady walked up to us at a show in Iowa. I was like, as far as we're going to go to Iowa and I think Nebraska, and then we were going to go back east. And this lady walked up, and the show we'd been accepted to. To come on out here was in Colorado Springs. And this lady comes up. She's from Colorado Springs. She goes to the show that we were gonna go to. It's an amazing show. Y' all don't need to miss it. You need to go. And they're like, okay. And I feel like a few years ago we would have looked at that as like, this lady's crazy. Yeah. We don't need to. We don't need to go off what this woman says.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:Or livelihood. But we're like, must be a sign from God. Let's go. And so we struck out, and we've. We've had a great time, man. It's been awesome. We've enjoyed it. We've been everywhere. And I think we're actually headed to. This coming up weekend will be in Priest River, Idaho.
Talmage Thayne:Okay.
Jim Tartt:Northern Idaho. I got a. It's called. I think Log days is the name of it. So it's like all the. They used to have a. You ever been to any of these things where it's. They put on the logging show where, like, they do the log roll and chop.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:With the axe and stuff.
Talmage Thayne:That looks so fun.
Jim Tartt:Well, it used to be a company that came in and did it. And then the lady's like, why are we bringing in people when the majority of the people up here all log?
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:So why don't we let all the local people come?
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And they can compete. That is like, bragging rights around town.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And so now it's all the local guys that log up there. They. They do the competition. Dang.
Talmage Thayne:It's pretty sick.
Jim Tartt:And we're gonna go see that.
Talmage Thayne:It is so cool. He does just put so many opportunities in our path. And I honestly think that you guys, like, us meeting you guys.
Jim Tartt:Oh, yeah.
Talmage Thayne:Was one of those. Because I was like, we were chatting, and then just the thought came into my head. It's like, he should be on the podcast.
Jim Tartt:And.
Talmage Thayne:It sounds like, you know a little bit about, like, LDS missionaries. They're away for two years, or the.
Jim Tartt:Only reason I know any of them about anything about it is because my football coach in college was the head coach at Utah.
Talmage Thayne:Oh, really?
Jim Tartt:Urban Meyer.
Talmage Thayne:Okay. Yeah.
Jim Tartt:So Urban name. Yeah, he was the head coach at Utah. My offensive line coach was the offensive line coach at Utah.
Talmage Thayne:Oh, wow.
Jim Tartt:And so a lot of the Samoan guys.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:That are on the team, he's like, yeah, he's like, they'd come back, it'd be gone for like two years and then they come back and he's like, play football. And yeah, I was like, why were they gone? He told me. I was like, oh, okay, that is so funny. But yeah, I mean, to say that I'm versed in LDS is incorrect. I'm, I'm ignorant, but.
Talmage Thayne:No, you're good. I, I'll just like take a, a minute just to brag about some of these missionaries. Like they, A lot of these missionaries will take all the money they've earned to pay their own Way for two years or 18 months. If you're a sister missionary to go to a random part of the world, they don't get to choose and to preach the gospel, to serve people. A lot of times you're just mowing people's lawns or helping people move or painting or whatever it is. And then you get to share a piece of the
Word. And they wake up at 6:30 in the morning, study a couple hours in the scriptures and then work from 10 till 9 at night. And so it's just, they sacrifice a lot and then a lot of times they come home and, and they struggle and it's, it's hard to see that.
Jim Tartt:We were in that routine.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And that's what with football it was so hard because every minute of your day planned.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:You wake up at 5 o' clock in the morning. If you have an ailment or you've had surgery or something, you go to the training room, they work on you for however long. You go eat breakfast, you eat what kind of breakfast you've been instructed to eat. That keeps you at the weight or the strength that you need to be at. You go to class, you get done with class, you go work out, you get done working out, you might have another class or you might have like an hour or two to kind of relax. You eat lunch, you go watch film, you practice football, you go to tutoring, you go home and it might be 11 o' clock when you get to the house.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:You get up the next morning. It's the same thing every single day.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And when you go say that we go to A bowl game. Well, you get a packet every single day, has everything you have to do when you have to do it. You don't pick what kind of food you want to eat. The food's there. So, like, when you become an adult.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And you got to make decisions. Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:And then you have kids and then you have to. You're responsible for them. I wasn't even responsible for myself for a while. Yeah.
Jim Tartt:Yeah. As irresponsible as I am, I'm supposed to make sure they make it.
Talmage Thayne:I'm actually terrified to have kids for that reason.
Jim Tartt:I don't be scared of it. It's the best thing ever. That is the hands down. People are like, oh, when you get married and they talk about how things change, nothing changes. When you get married, that's paperwork. When you have kids, that's when your life changes. And it's once again, what a blessing, what a gift it is that God has found something in you that he thinks you need to pass on to another generation.
Talmage Thayne:Dang.
Jim Tartt:I mean, it's wild.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah. I didn't think about it that way.
Jim Tartt:Yeah, man. And it's such a. And you watch him grow up and like, my son, watching him figure things out, like time flies and doing that. He does it all on his own. He figures it out and it's so cool to watch as they develop into who they're going to be. And that's really cool. And then also getting to watch their relationship with Jesus and with God, how it grows and the questions they ask. And, you know, thank God that I'm of a sober mind to be able to talk to him about it.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:Okay. So you don't want to do this, like, go this way, come back this way. So. Oh, man. It's cool.
Talmage Thayne:I could see us being God's children and why it'd be so. I'm not saying God gets frustrated, but.
Jim Tartt:Oh, man, I bet that dude's up there just like.
Talmage Thayne:Just like, what are you doing? Oh, my gosh. Because, like, no, no. Some of the decisions I've made in my life, I'm just like, what was I thinking? I was like, out of my mind. But. But thank goodness he trusts us enough to like.
Jim Tartt:And the great and the grace that he has. And then also with kids, Sunshine gets onto me all the time and she's like, there's somebody that's giving you a lot of grace, giving you for a lot of things. Like, you might need to think about that before you start getting on to people.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:I'm like, yeah, you're right.
Talmage Thayne:That's so funny. But, well, before we end, I kind of wanted to ask you about some of the maybe college athletes that. That are done with college and they don't go probably, or anything like that. You talked about how a lot of them struggle.
Jim Tartt:Oh, yeah.
Talmage Thayne:Afterwards.
Jim Tartt:And it's kind of what we were talking about with. So the guys coming back from the mission and what you've been doing and how, you know, you've been working so hard to help not only yourself, but help. Help your church grow. And then it's just like, well, it's done now. Come on. And so with me, get done playing football. And you're no different than anybody else. Yeah. You don't get that, so you go apply for a job. Well, I should get the job over anybody else because, you know, I'm a state champ. I'm a. I'm a national championship football champ.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:And, you know, everybody knows me. I've been on tv. And then some dude that, like, got a GED and lives in a tent down the road gets the job over you, and you're like, okay, well, I guess I'm not. Guess I'm not as cool as I thought I was.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah, that's rough.
Jim Tartt:But it's. There's a lot of guys. And then also the habits that you form while they're drinking, partying. Can't live like that. Yeah, you can. So, I mean, it's. It's. It's rough. Yeah. And they try. I don't know about all universities, but University of Florida, they try to help you. They have classes where you go to them and they're like, okay, so you've been living this way. You can't live like that when you go forth. Yeah. Into the world like that. That's only here.
Talmage Thayne:And that's smart that they have classes.
Jim Tartt:It really is. And it's funny, too. To me, I laughed about it, but it's like, when you're in prison.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:Not a prison. They try to help you back into.
Talmage Thayne:Society, like, reintegrate you.
Jim Tartt:Okay, well, you can't act like this anymore.
Talmage Thayne:That is so funny.
Jim Tartt:So I looked at. I was like, well, we're pretty much inmates.
Talmage Thayne:That's actually why I started this podcast, because when I got home, I was like, dang. There's no, like, reintegration process for missionaries. It was just kind of like.
Jim Tartt:I couldn't imagine.
Talmage Thayne:You guys got this. Good luck.
Jim Tartt:We watch. Me and my son, we watch a guy on YouTube. He's awesome. And you look him up. It's He. He started. His first YouTube channel was Catfish and Carp. And then his. His one he has now is called Outdoor Boys, and it's him and his three sons. They go camping. They go all over the place. Oh, man. Luke Nichols is his name.
Talmage Thayne:Okay.
Jim Tartt:And he. He did his mission in Tokyo, I think.
Talmage Thayne:Oh, sick.
Jim Tartt:Yeah. And he'll take his kids back to Tokyo, and he takes them all around and shows them everything and goes and visits the families that he met while he was there. And he goes to his church and everything over there. And he. That dude. He's a cool dude. You need to look him up. We. We love. Actually, if they're not watching it right now, they might be waiting for me. But he comes out with a new episode every Saturday.
Talmage Thayne:Oh, really?
Jim Tartt:Yeah, we sit down and watch it. It's great.
Talmage Thayne:That is awesome. Me and my wife are actually going back to my mission in Scotland and Ireland, and we're going to go visit some of the people. I'm so excited.
Jim Tartt:That's cool.
Talmage Thayne:It's going to. We're going to go at the end of August, so I've never.
Jim Tartt:Never been overseas. Might have to go. Might have to go sell some sauce over there sometime.
Talmage Thayne:Definitely. That'd be awesome.
Jim Tartt:Yep.
Talmage Thayne:Well, just to wrap it up, if you could give one piece of advice to returning missionaries and how they can transition back home in a stable but, like, very successful way, what would you. What would you give them?
Jim Tartt:From what you've told me, just a little bit of us talking, I would put everything that's going on in the world, everything that you have done, all that with your mission and all those things, just kind of put that to the side. And just. Just remember that your relationship, your personal relationship, you've been trying to help all these other people form a relationship. Your personal relationship with Jesus is number one. And you're not going to benefit yourself or anyone else until you have that locked down and you have that where that needs to be, because everything else is second.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah.
Jim Tartt:Doesn't matter what it is. I would just make sure you keep your mind wrapped around that and not let all the worldly things. Well, you got to get a job now or you got to do this. Need no job, man. You can make. You make money doing anything. My kids sold hooks and yarn at a show and made money. He's amazing. Yeah. So just. You got to keep Jesus number one. Everything will be good. Dang. I love it.
Talmage Thayne:Well, Jim, thank you so much for coming on.
Jim Tartt:Heck, yeah, man. I appreciate the invite. First podcast.
Talmage Thayne:Oh, really?
Jim Tartt:Yeah. I've been on a podcast.
Talmage Thayne:This is the big debut. Okay.
Jim Tartt:Sick.
Talmage Thayne:I'll be tagging SOP Choppy and everything. But for the viewers, if they want to follow, like, along with you guys, I don't know if you guys have social media or if you guys have a website you want to send people to.
Jim Tartt:It's jbsopchoppysauce.com we have social media. My wife used to really be involved with it. And then we'd be at a show, and some person would come up and recognize one of my kids and start speaking to one of my kids because they had seen them on Facebook.
Talmage Thayne:Oh, yeah.
Jim Tartt:Kind of like.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah, kind of scary.
Jim Tartt:That's not cool. Yeah. We need to figure this out a little different. So we kind of. We kind of backed away from the social media a little bit. Yeah.
Talmage Thayne:Well, I highly recommend getting their sauce, because we just had a roast, and we put some sauce on it while it was, like, slow cooking, and it was amazing. And you guys don't.
Jim Tartt:I promise you've had worse.
Talmage Thayne:Yeah, I have had a lot worse.
Jim Tartt:You said worse sauce the week before.
Talmage Thayne:I did my own, and it was. It was awful compared to theirs. But your sauce doesn't have, like, any harmful chemicals.
Jim Tartt:The only preservative in our sauce is apple cider vinegar.
Talmage Thayne:Perfect.
Jim Tartt:It's just food in a bottle. It's revolutionary. We're changing the game.
Talmage Thayne:I love it.
Jim Tartt:Yeah, man.
Talmage Thayne:Well, thanks for coming on.
Jim Tartt:Anytime.
